Psalm 81:13 Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! What is the purpose of life? To live for God, walking in His ways. A man is called to love God. It’s not a bi-product of good Christian living or something they really should be doing. It’s a purpose. It’s a calling from God. Men, a woman who loves the Lord will always stand behind you and beside you and push and encourage you in the way you ought to go. You will be the driver and she will be your navigator. She will hear and listen to God’s voice, allowing for grace as we all are human and make mistakes and sin. This is why it is always better with two. Two people who hear and listen to God.
Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.
Ladies, this is the same calling that we have. To follow our God. How do you know that a man is a man of God and worth giving your heart to? What a simple question! Does he love and pursue God? Does he do with his whole life, what his life has been purposed for. If the answer to that question is yes, with purpose he pursues the Lord in all of his ways (giving of course a beat for grace as we are all human), then he is worth giving your attention to.
Proverbs 31:11-12 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
The question I was asked this week by one of our followers is “If the person I am with doesn’t know God, should I pray for him or leave him?” My answer is this. Pray pray pray! But the reason God calls us not to be unequally yoked is not because He is a mean rule maker. It’s because as a woman of God, my direction is towards the Lord and His plans for my life; and as a wife, my heart desires to go in the direction of my husband. Being unequally yoked will be two oxen pulling a plow in two different directions. Mine goes towards God, while my husbands goes wherever the next wind blows him. Pray for him and maybe God will change his heart. I was married to and prayed for my husband for eight and a half years before we divorced. He forced me in the end to choose between him and God and I had to choose God. You don’t want that kind of pain. Please pray for him and pray for you too. God has good plans for both of your lives but only God can change your man’s heart.
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
This is not a lecture to say don’t date an unbeliever by the way. It’s simply stating the obvious. I chose to be with a man who didn’t love or pursue the Lord. It’s detrimental on so many levels and to all parties involved.
For the woman, she becomes either pulled apart as she pursues the Lord and her man, being pulled in two different directions. The other option is that she chooses her man and gets crushed spiritually and emotionally, as she hears the constant calling of the Holy Spirit to return to the Lord and chooses to ignore it. Or else, she pursues the Lord, ultimately releasing the relationship with her spouse who does not want to go in that direction. I tried all of these in my previous marriage. The last option that we pray for is that, after putting space in the relationship, that her spouse would then recognize what the stakes are, turn, and choose to follow the Lord with his wife.
For the man, he could become dominating, controlling, and unloving as he sees his woman struggling back and forth between him and God. He could get tired and frustrated with the push and pull and start to demand and command instead of love in the way the Lord calls him to. He could also become passive, almost lethargic and depressed. He possibly feels that struggle too, but your indecision to fix your eyes on God or on the world is causing confusion in his own heart. He becomes emasculated, not feeling that he is fulfilling his role as a leader in your home. It could even cause him to look outside of your home for this. Or, he could also recognize the pull of the Lord, realize that it is for his benefit, and come to know the Lord, because of your love for the Lord. The man of God could rise up in him and not only take control, but do so with love and strength. He could push the sin out of your marriage and become the man after God’s heart. We pray that this is what happens.
I saw myself in a green, lush forest. The path below my feet was dusty, red, golden, and brown with the blanket of fall leaves spread over it. The wind blew cold and wild around on this road and it lifted my watery eyes up. I saw people of all kinds of people around me on this path. All races and ages, all heights and widths, capable and disabled, and they were littering the paths around me. Crowds of people, branching off onto different paths all around me. Pouring, like a massive flood into every wide path they could find along this road. But directly in front of me, hardly populated, and very bright and inviting, was the path that leads to the cross. I could see a few heading that way and a few knelt down before it.
Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
The interesting thing about this narrow path is that is calls. It it appealing and attractive when you’re close to it. Further back, it looks like a sliver in the trees, but when you approach it opens up into wide, flowing fields. Grass and meadows, flowers, birds, and sunshine. The smells of pollen and fresh river water, dew on the grass, and sun baked ground are intoxicating and you can’t get enough of it. This is what it’s like when you choose to step onto that narrow path. The reason it is narrow though is that you have to walk onto it alone. Some may choose to follow you. I pray that your spouse would choose to follow you. Lord, please let our children follow us. But that sliver in the trees that calls us is only wide enough for one at a time. You have got to make that decision alone. My prayer is that as you choose to pursue Him, that your loved ones, your prodigal children and your prodigal spouse, will follow.
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